Digital Commons Network^™

The Tragedy Of The Anticommons: Property In The Transition From Marx To Markets, Michael A. Heller

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Why are many storefronts in Moscow empty, while street kiosks in front are full of goods? In this Article, Professor Heller develops a theory of anticommons property to help explain the puzzle of empty storefronts and full kiosks. Anticommons property can be understood as the mirror image of commons property. By definition, in a commons, multiple owners are each endowed with the privilege to use a given resource, and no one has the right to exclude another When too many owners hold such privileges of use, the resource is prone to overuse - a tragedy of the commons. Depleted fisheries …

Islamic Law As A Source Of Constitutional Law In Egypt: The Constitutionalization Of The Sharia In A Modern Arab State, Clark B. Lombardi

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No abstract provided.

Secrets And Lies? Swiss Banks And International Human Rights, Anita Ramasastry

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This Article explores the relationship of Swiss banks and their tradition of bank secrecy to the activities of a particular group of depositors: war criminals and other human rights violators. The Article focuses on litigation brought in U.S. courts by plaintiffs seeking access to Swiss bank deposits made by the Nazis and Ferdinand Marcos. The Article examines the possibility of holding banks accountable under international law for assisting a customer who has committed a serious breach of international law. Part I introduces the role of bank secrecy in the current litigation. Part 11 describes the Swiss tradition of bank secrecy. …

The License Is The Product: Comments On The Promise Of Article 2b For Software And Information Licensing, Robert W. Gomulkiewicz

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Article 2B promises to draw together contract principles for software and information licensing that, at present, are spread among various bodies of law.

This Article argues that Article 2B must affirm industry standard licensing practices in order to prove beneficial. For example, Article 2B's affirmation of industry standard mass market licensing is important for both publishers and end users. Article 2B must also provide the flexibility to accommodate new distribution and licensing models that will arise as electronic commerce matures. Any other approach would fundamentally disrupt the software and information industries.

Moreover, this Article urges the drafters of Article 2B …

Federalism In The Era Of International Standards: Federal And State Government Regulation Of Merchant Vessels In The United States (Part Ii), Craig H. Allen

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No abstract provided.

Federalism In The Era Of International Standards: Federal And State Government Regulation Of Merchant Vessels In The United States (Part I), Craig H. Allen

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In examining federalism issues relevant to merchant vessels, this article will distinguish between those laws and regulations governing liability for harm and those which regulate safety. Federalism questions arise most frequently in the former, private, maritime law domain, when courts are called upon to determine judicial jurisdiction and the extent to which state law may be applied to adjudicate liability and damages in cases falling within the admiralty and maritime jurisdiction. Less frequently, the federalism debate focuses on public maritime law, when states seek to regulate commercial vessel safety or vessel-source pollution.

This article will begin with an examination of …

Alejandre V. Republic Of Cuba [Cuban Liability For Shooting Down Civil Aircraft], Stephen J. Schnably

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No abstract provided.

Talking About Religion In The Language Of The Law: Impossible But Necessary, James Boyd White

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In speaking to this conference about religion and law I am in a decidedly peculiar position, for it may be that every one of you has thought longer and harder about the relation between these two forms of life than I have. When Scott Idleman first asked me to talk to you, I explained that I was no expert, to put it mildly, and that the most that I could offer would be the reflections of a neophyte. He said that this was fine-perhaps he was just desperate for a speaker; perhaps he thought that it might be helpful to …

A Critique Of The Proposed National Tobacco Resolution And A Suggested Alternative, Jon D. Hanson, Kyle D. Logue

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The first criticism is that the proposed resolution would not require manufacturers and, in tum, consumers to pay anything approaching the true total costs of cigarettes, costs that we estimate to be at least $7 per pack, a number that is considerably higher than other estimates that have been reported in the media. Our estimate includes some, but not all, of the costs borne ultimately by smokers themselves, by smokers' insurers, and by individuals injured by second-hand smoke. It includes only future costs and excludes many of those. So, for example, the figure includes neither the health-care costs that have …

The Costs Of Cigarettes: The Economic Case For Ex Post Incentive-Based Regulation, Jon D. Hanson, Kyle D. Logue

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Cigarette smoking causes over 420,000 deaths annually in the United States, roughly twenty percent of all U.S. deaths, making cigarettes the single greatest preventable cause of death in this country. Indeed, tobacco kills more people every year than alcohol, illicit drugs, automobile accidents, violent crime, and AIDS combined. And not only are cigarettes deadly to smokers; they kill nonsmokers as well. According to a recent report from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the "sidestream" or "passive" smoke from cigarettes - so-called environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) - is responsible annually for approximately 3000 lung cancer deaths, between 150,000 and 300,000 lower …

Smokers' Compensation: Toward A Blueprint For Federal Regulation Of Cigarette Manufacturers, Jon D. Hanson, Kyle D. Logue, Michael S. Zamore

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Although nothing is certain in Washington, sweeping federal legislation in the cigarette area is more likely now than has ever been the case. Congress is currently considering several proposals for comprehensive federal regulation of the cigarette market, a market that has until now gone largely untouched by government intervention. Among those proposals, the one that has received the most attention, and the one that in fact motivated policy makers to look anew at the problems posed by cigarettes, is the proposed national tobacco resolution (the "Proposed Resolution"). The Proposed Resolution, which has been advanced by a coalition of state attorneys …

Canon, Anti-Canon, And Judicial Dissent, Richard Primus

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Several legal theorists have recently explored the idea that constitutional law has a canon, a set of greatly authoritative texts that above all others shape the nature and development of constitutional law. In a piece published earlier this year in the Harvard Law Review, Jack Balkin and Sanford Levinson enter that discussion and argue that the constitutional canon has heretofore laid too much emphasis on court cases in general and on opinions of the Supreme Court in particular. In the course of their argument, they cite an earlier study of constitutional law casebooks currently in use to show that …

Truth And Its Rivals In The Law Of Hearsay And Confrontation (Symposium: Truth And Its Rivals: Evidence Reform And The Goals Of Evidence Law)." , Richard D. Friedman

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In this paper, I will look at the problem of hearsay and confrontation through the lens offered by this symposium's theme of "truth and its rivals." I will ask: To what extent does the law of hearsay and confrontation aspire to achieve the goal of truth in litigation? To what extent does it, or should it, seek to achieve other goals, or to satisfy other constraints on the litigation system? And, given the ends that it seeks to achieve, what should the shape of the law in this area be? My principal conclusions are as follows: In most settings, the …

Confrontation: The Search For Basic Principles, Richard D. Friedman

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The Sixth Amendment to the Constitution guarantees the accused in a criminal prosecution the right "to be confronted with the Witnesses against him."' The Confrontation Clause clearly applies to those witnesses who testify against the accused at trial. Moreover, it is clear enough that confrontation ordinarily includes the accused's right to have those witnesses brought "face-toface," in the time-honored phrase, when they testify.2 But confrontation is much more than this "face-to-face" right. It also comprehends the right to have witnesses give their testimony under oath and to subject them to crossexamination. 3 Indeed, the Supreme Court has treated the accused's …

Make-Believe: The Rules Excluding Evidence Of Character And Liability Insurance (Symposium: Truth And Its Rivals: Evidence Reform And The Goals Of Evidence Law), Samuel R. Gross

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Article IV of the Federal Rules of Evidence includes several rules that prohibit the use of specified types of information as evidence of particular propositions. Subsequent remedial measures are inadmissible to prove negligence (but admissible to show ownership, control, et cetera),' settlement offers are inadmissible to prove liability (but admissible to show bias or prejudice, or for other purposes),2 and so forth. Any exclusion of relevant evidence involves some distortion of reality in the sense that the picture presented to the trier of fact includes less information than the available total. That will be true whether the evidence is kept …

Physician-Assisted Suicide: The Problems Presented By The Compelling, Heartwrenching Case, Yale Kamisar

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Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has upheld New York and Washington state laws prohibiting the aiding of another to commit suicide,2 the spotlight will shift to the state courts, the state legislatures and state referenda. And once again proponents of physician-assisted suicide (PAS) will point to a heartwrenching case, perhaps the relatively rare case where a dying person is experiencing unavoidable pain (i.e., pain that not even the most skilled palliative care experts are able to mitigate), and ask: What would you want done to you if you were in this person's shoes?

Ann Arbor, December 1997, William I. Miller

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In a journal entry from Dec 1997, Miller describes his daily thoughts and activities. He recalls watching "Beauty and the Beast," contemplating his views on sex and being sick during the Christmas season.

Strategies For Evaluating Software Usability, Ronan Fitzpatrick

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This paper presents a usage analysis and taxonomy of methods which are used to evaluate the usability of computer systems. To accommodate the analysis and taxonomy, a matrix of strategies which can be used for effective usability evaluation is presented. Such an analysis, taxonomy and strategies support human-computer interaction (HCI) professionals who have the responsibility for ensuring computer system usability. The strategies outlined are named Virtual Engineering, Soft Modelling, Hard Review and Real World. This paper also uses a composite set of existing popular generic evaluation methods which can be used as part of these strategies. The methods used are …

Out Of The Shadow: Marking Intersections In And Between Asian Pacific American Critical Legal Scholarship And Latina/O Critical Legal Theory, Elizabeth M. Iglesias

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No abstract provided.

Is American Law Inherently Racist Krinock Lecture Series, Richard Delgado, Daniel A. Farber

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No abstract provided.

The Battle That Never Was: Congress, The White House, And Agency Litigation Authority, Neal Devins, Michael Herz

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No abstract provided.

Understanding The "Public Interest" Justification For Government Actions, Paul R. Verkuil

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The article examines the concept of "public interest" as a justification for government actions, arguing that while the term has historically been a cornerstone of administrative law, its meaning has become increasingly ambiguous and subjective over time. The author traces the evolution of the public interest standard, from its origins in the New Deal era to its current use, and questions whether it can still serve as an objective standard for evaluating government behavior. The analysis highlights the tension between the public interest as a justification for government action and its susceptibility to political and bureaucratic influence.

Latino And Latina Critical Theory: An Annotated Bibliography Latcrit: Latinas/Os And The Law: A Joint Symposium By California Law Review And La Raza Law Journal: Policy, Politics, And Praxis, Jean Stefancic

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No abstract provided.

Injured Women Before Common Law Courts, 1860-1930, Margo Schlanger

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How did early American tort law treat women? How were they expected to behave, and how were others expected to behave towards them? What gender differences mattered, and how did courts deal with those differences? These are the issues this Article explores. My aim is to illuminate the common law of torts and its relation to and with ideas about gender difference, by focusing on three sets of cases involving injured women, spanning the time between approximately 1860 and 1930. My conclusions run counter to two approaches scholars have frequently taken in analyzing gender and the common law of torts. …

30 <= R(3,3,4) <= 31, Konrad Piwakowski, Stanislaw Radziszowski

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With the help of computer algorithms, we improve the upper bound on the classical three color Ramsey number R(3,3,4), and thus we show that the exact value of this number is 30 or 31. We also present computer enumeration of all 3-colorings of edges on at least 14 vertices without monochromatic triangles.

Upper Bounds For Some Ramsey Numbers R(3, K), Stanislaw Radziszowski, Donald Kreher

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Using several computer algorithms we calculate some values and bounds for the function e(3, k, n), the minimum number of edges in a triangle-free graphs on n vertices with no independent set of size k. As a consequence, the following new upper bounds for the classical two color Ramsey numbers are obtained: R(3,10)<=43, R(3,11)<=51, R(3,12)<=60, R(3,13)<=69 and R(3,14)<=78.

Lost Lives: Miscarriages Of Justice In Capital Cases, Samuel R. Gross

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One of the longstanding complaints against the death penalty is that it "distort[s] the course of the criminal law."' Capital prosecutions are expensive and complicated; they draw sensational attention from the press; they are litigated-before, during, and after trial-at greater length and depth than other felonies; they generate more intense emotions, for and against; they last longer and live in memory. There is no dispute about these effects, only about their significance. To opponents of the death penalty, they range from minor to severe faults; to proponents, from tolerable costs to major virtues. ntil recently, however, the conviction of innocent …

Civil Rule 53: An Enabling Act Challenge (Federal Practice And Procedure Symposiusm Honoring Charles Alan Wright), Edward H. Cooper

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The Judicial Conference of the United States is charged by statute to "carry on a continuous study of the operation and effect of the general rules of practice and procedure," recommending desirable changes to the Supreme Court.' The Rules Enabling Act,2 which describes the Supreme Court's role, further provides that the Judicial Conference is to be assisted in this task by a "standing committee on rules of practice, procedure, and evidence" ;3 the standing committee in turn reviews "each recommendation of any other committees" appointed to advise it.4

An Alternative And Discretionary § 1367 (Symposium: A Reappraisal Of The Supplemental Jurisdiction Statute, Title 28 U.S.C. 1367), Edward H. Cooper

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Supplemental jurisdiction is a concept too complex to be captured by complicated statutory drafting. That is my proposition. Or, somewhat more accurately, that is my tentative proposition, advanced for consideration alongside the elegant but intricate statutory proposals emerging from the American Law Institute's Federal Judicial Code Revision Project. Professor John Oakley, the Reporter, knows more about supplemental jurisdiction, and has thought more deeply about it, than anyone. He has traveled many roads in continually refining proposed revisions of 28 U.S.C. § 1367. If anyone can capture all the nuances of supplemental jurisdiction in a statute, it is he, assisted by …

Why Do Juries Get A Bum Rap: Reflections On The Work Of Valerie Hans, Richard O. Lempert

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The paper by Professor Valerie Hans that I have been asked to comment on examines the widespread expectation that jurors are prepared to hold businesses responsible in tort actions when they would not hold individual actors similarly responsible.1 Two reasons are commonly offered for this expectation. The first is that jurors naturally sympathize with individuals (like themselves) when people sue businesses, either because they identify with the plaintiffs as individuals or because they hold antibusiness attitudes. The second is that because businesses are often wealthy, a "deep pockets" effect exists such that jurors in negligence cases will find for undeserving …